Felting a bar of soap

General Knitting
1

I know this is not really knitting but wasn’t sure where else to put it…

I very much want to make felted soaps as gifts for people but the bar always turns to mush after a few uses. I am rather addicted to felting. Anyway I have tried commercially available soaps, some random soap from Whole Foods and then last week I use a bar of Goat’s Milk Soap that a friend made. She even added a stabilizer that was supposed to prevent the soap from going soft. I’ve used it 3 times and the bar is turning to mush inside the felting. What’s the secret !!???

2

That’s interesting. They have some asst my LYS, but I’ve never tried one or made one. Are there recipes or patterns online that might help?

3

Apparently you can get soap specifically designed for felting?
http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/felt-making-soap-75g.html?gclid=CjwKEAiAvs7CBRC24rao6bGCoiASJABaCt5DPkYTHYvU7Fy0RVyPivUq0H28MaruYume0fJfX1k0UhoCnMDw_wcB

4

I couldn’t find anything for us in the US. I did find this page that does address this question somewhat further down the page.
http://members.peak.org/~spark/feltaroundsoap.html

One theme that came up repeatedly was to let the soap “cure” or harden before using it for this project. Also glycerine soap doesn’t work well.